by Julie Benson
Maybe Cassie was right, and AJ wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
Let’s not get too carried away. Thoughts like that could make a girl go all dreamy over a man like AJ.
The front door opened, and Cassie called out a chipper hello. Her footsteps clacked on the wooden floor, and a minute later she poked her head in the office door. “Is it safe for me to come in? I saw the look on your face when I said AJ could stay in the Carriage House. It wasn’t total horror, but I’d say it was a seven.”
She waved her friend into the room. “Lucky for you I love you more than most of my family. Otherwise, you’d be in trouble.”
As Cassie inched into the room, Grace’s eyes widened and she giggled. The friend she knew preferred loose flowing skirts and occasionally a pair of cotton capris, but jeans? Grace couldn’t remember seeing Cassie wear a pair. “Look at you, going all cowgirl. The boots with the skirt last night surprised me, but I can’t believe you’re wearing jeans, and your shirt has a western yoke. Please tell me you don’t own a cowboy hat.”
Cassie put her hands on her hips. “There is nothing wrong with wearing a cowboy hat, especially if I’m helping Ty with a tour.”
“Apparently you can take the city out of the girl.”
“You should see my hat. It’s got a band around it with turquoise beading, silver studs and rhinestones.” Cassie motioned around her head, as if she were wearing said hat, and squirmed with her bridely excitement. “Ty bought it for me after my face got sunburned on a tour.”
Grace groaned.
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” Cassie sank into the chair near the desk. “There’s something about living here. I’ve found a serenity I never felt in New York. I can’t explain it.”
“Don’t give me that. It’s all because you have that tall, dark and ruggedly handsome cowboy in your bed every night. That would cloud a nun’s judgment.”
Her friend blushed, and Grace found herself feeling a little like Kermit the Frog. Nope, it wasn’t easy being green, and seeing your friend have it all—a wonderful man who loved her enough to buy her a hat to keep from getting sunburned, the career she’d dreamed of taking off, and happiness radiating out of her like stupid little moonbeams.
If Grace could find a sliver of that calm, and bliss she’d consider herself lucky.
An image of a different cowboy flashed in her mind. This one not quite as tall as Ty, but with a killer smile, and crystal blue eyes. And the way he filled out his jeans could make a woman smile for a week. She bet he could give her some blissful moments.
The last thing she wanted or needed was more contact with AJ. Not when she’d been close to accepting the comfort he offered last night. A woman could only resist temptation for so long, and that thought left her knees knocking together.
“Speaking of cowboys, I know you aren’t happy about AJ staying at the inn,” Cassie said, as if she knew where Grace’s thoughts had drifted. “Be honest with me. Did you really work things out?”
“We did, but that doesn’t mean I want him staying here with me.”
Cassie eyed Grace in a way only a best friend could, as if to say she knew Grace wasn’t giving her the real reason. “He’s not staying here with you. He’s staying here in an entirely different building. Between that and him working all day, I bet you won’t run into each other.”
Grace tilted her head, and threw Cassie a yeah-right look.
“Okay, maybe in the driveway as you’re coming or going,” Cassie conceded, but then leveled her with a best-friend-I know-something’s-fishy look. “What’s really going on?”
“He’s a cop, Cass. You’ve met my dad, and you have to ask what my problem is with AJ?”
No, he wasn’t a big city cop, but certain qualities came along with the badge and the paycheck, no matter what the size of the police force. Women loved to read about police officer heroes with dark troubled souls, but Grace discovered the reality never lived up to the fiction. She’d seen what her mother’s life was like.
Even if she believed in happily ever after, which she didn’t—with her family as examples, how could she—cops had a horrid track record. The fact they couldn’t share the details of their work, along with the stresses, pressures, and cynicism associated with their career created a giant wall in a relationship, dooming it almost from the start.
“Just because they’re in the same profession doesn’t mean AJ’s like your dad. Ty wouldn’t have a best friend who was a complete ass like your father.”
“Considering my last relationship, I’m swearing off men for a while, and when I do start dating again, it won’t be a cop.”
While AJ asked tough questions, when she’d told him the truth, he accepted the fact. And he’d admitted when he’d been wrong. Things she couldn’t say of her father.
Don’t go there. Keep your guard up.
So what? She’d come to Texas to run the inn, get away from her parents, and have that simpler, calmer life Cassie talked about. With her track record with men and AJ’s profession, the risk failed to outweigh the possible benefits.
“How about we quit talking about men, and you start training me to run The Bluebonnet Inn so you can work on selling more of that high-priced western art?”
“It’s Sunday. We’re going to have some fun. Work can wait a day.”
Monday morning when AJ walked into the office, a duffle bag of necessities in his hand, Marjorie eyed the bag and said, “You running away from home?”
Don’t sound so excited. I’ll be gone soon enough.
Normally, he summed people up right quick with amazing precision, but not Marjorie. He never quite knew how serious she was. He also couldn’t figure out how much joking with his staff was appropriate. Deciding to err on caution’s side, he explained about his temporary move to The Bluebonnet Inn.
“I don’t know why you rented the Wilson place. Anyone with halfway decent vision could tell it hadn’t been taken care of properly.”
No missing her implication there. She believed him a big city fool.
Despite having been to Wishing at least once a year since college, people still considered him an outsider, and he couldn’t blame them. Except for an occasional outing to The Horseshoe, he and his buddies pretty much holed up on the ranch during their retreats. “I realized the place needed work, and had a list of improvements included in my lease. Jerry saw to a good part of them before I moved in, but unless I had x-ray vision there was no way to know about the plumbing issues.”
Marjorie humphed. From the look in her eyes, he figured she was fixing to launch into another lecture. He wondered what offense he’d committed now. Forgetting every first Monday he was to provide donuts?
“If anyone needs me—”
The office line ringing drowned him out. Marjorie, who insisted she be able to hear the phone anywhere in the office, kept the ringer on the deafen-everyone-else setting. As she answered the call, AJ made a quick getaway.
When he was halfway across the reception room, Marjorie called out to him. “Chief, that horse of yours broke loose again, and is wandering on old highway 23. You need to deal with her, and if you can’t keep her corralled, you got no business having a horse.”
He should have Marjorie relay her message to Ty. Siccing his dispatcher on his friend would serve him right. He turned back toward the front door. “I’m on my way.”
Chapter Six
Ten minutes later he found Lu wandering a half mile from his rental property, not a building in sight, nothing but fields and cows visible as far as the eye could see. After pulling onto the shoulder, he grabbed a rope from behind his seat, crawled out of his truck, and approached the horse. “Lu, what am I going to do with you?”
When the horse heard his voice she sauntered over to him. Patting the animal’s neck, he said, “You gotta quit going on these adventures.”
The horse snorted.
“Don’t be giving me lip.” He slipped the rope around her neck, and turned to lead her b
ack to the barn. She clip clopped alongside him for a while, but then stopped to shove her nose under his arm. When he started up, she refused to move.
He tugged on the rope, but Lu wouldn’t move. For a minute he scratched her forehead, and tried leading her again. This time she followed. They repeated the process a few times, making their way back to his driveway, but once there, Lu stopped again.
He coaxed. He scratched behind her ears. He tugged. “For an old girl, damn, you’re strong.”
He lost his patience and yelled, but this time nothing budged her. As he stared at the endless hayfields stretched out around him, sweat trickled down his neck, collecting in his uniform collar. Damn polyester shirts breathed as well as a fish on the bank. He tugged off his straw Stetson, and swiped his forearm over his damp forehead.
“Between your stubbornness and a certain other female I’ve dealt with lately, it’s a wonder I’m not in a padded room talking to myself.”
Of course he stood in the middle of an old farm highway, the July Texas sun beating down on him, the wind spraying him with dust, lecturing a horse. He’d called that pretty darn close.
Fed up, AJ called Ty, but had to leave a message. “Call me the minute you get this. That four-legged problem I took off your hands is giving me fits. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do, but I can’t keep getting calls at work because she’s on the loose.”
Lu, content again, munched on grass by the side of the road. “I’m in the middle of highway 23, and she refuses to go back to the barn. I need your trailer.”
Next he called Cassie, hoping she’d answer, and he’d discover Ty was with her, but her phone went straight to voice mail, forcing him to leave another message.
Minutes later when he hadn’t heard from either of his friends, AJ decided he had three choices. He could stand here all morning looking like a fool, hoping Lu would give in. He could take her with him to work, keeping her out back, and opening him up to endless ridicule for riding her into town. Or he could get her to the inn. Hopefully, the metal fence surrounding the inn’s property would slow down her escapes, or dear Lord, please, contain her until he could figure out what to do.
As he hauled himself up on the mare’s back, he prayed no one would see him. He tapped his heels against her sides. “Let’s go, girl. You and Ty better hope nothing happens to my truck before I get back to pick it up, or there will be hell to pay.”
Apparently now that she possessed his undivided attention, Lu decided a leisurely stroll was a great idea. With a big fat emphasis on leisurely. No, that wasn’t right, because babies walking along furniture moved faster than the two of them. At this rate he’d be gray before he reached the inn.
The only good news was no else was on the road. As the thought entered his head, he heard what sounded like a motor. “Damn, I jinxed it.” He tapped the horse’s flanks. “Lu, speed it up.”
Not that the mare at top speed would get him anywhere fast enough to avoid being spotted by whoever was heading their way. But instead of doing as he requested, the horse shook her head, and blew air at him.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d met Grace, and the two of you hatched a plot to drive me crazy.” He nudged the mare’s flanks again. “Toss me a bone, girl. It’s been a long day, and it’s not even noon.”
If anything Lu slowed her pace. The engine sounds grew louder. Closer. AJ glanced over his shoulder, and sighed at the approaching truck. A minute later, Virgil pulled up beside him. “Out for a leisurely ride, Chief?”
“This is serious stuff. Lu and I are in training. I figure she’s got a good shot at the Derby.”
Virgil chuckled. “Good one, Chief, but I’d say the only way she stands a chance is if she leaves the gate two days before the other horses get to town.”
“Better make that three,” AJ added. If a man couldn’t laugh at himself, others would hound him about it. He’d learned that in Afghanistan, along with the fact that any day a man spent above ground counted as a win.
“If that’s the best horse you can afford, I should talk to the council about paying you more.”
“What she lacks in speed, she makes up for in stubbornness and smarts. She’s a wily one who keeps getting loose. Damned if I can figure out how she’s doing it, though.”
“I wouldn’t be spreading that last part around.” Then Virgil asked where he was headed. “It’ll take you the better part of the day to get to The Bluebonnet Inn the way you were plodding along. I’ll head back to my place, get my trailer, and be back in a flash.”
“You don’t have better things to do?”
“You’re the one with important duties. We can’t have our chief stuck out here arguing with a stubborn mare.”
He did have other duties, but unfortunately his temporary chief responsibilities kept getting in the way. But if Virgil dropped him off, and then headed into town, and stayed away from Mason, could be his luck would turn. He might accomplish some real work. Provided he got Lu situated, and she stayed put for a while.
His chances of all those stars aligning were between slim and none. “Lu and I’ll be here waiting.”
The glint in the older man’s eyes sent a bad feeling through AJ, souring his stomach, but he swallowed his question. He’d borrowed enough trouble today.
“Thanks. The trailer would be a big help.” Some days a wise man knew giving in was the best decision.
Virgil nodded. “Good. It’ll give me a chance to talk to you about a problem I need your help with.”
AJ suppressed a groan. Wise man? Too bad he wasn’t the wisest on the road. He’d stepped right into that well-laid plan. Today wasn’t looking like it would be his day.
Grace stood at the kitchen sink filling a glass with water, and glanced out the window into the fenced grassy area behind the Main House. She blinked to clear her vision, and checked outside a second time.
No, she had to be imagining things. There couldn’t be a horse in the yard. She glanced out again, but the animal was still there. What the heck was she supposed to do about it?
She walked across the kitchen, reached into the fridge to locate a carrot, and headed out the back door to investigate. Did horses wear tags like dogs and cats? No, they had brands, or had ranchers stopped doing that? Maybe horses were microchipped the way most pets were nowadays. She hoped so, otherwise how was she supposed to find the animal’s owner?
Cautiously she approached the horse, holding the carrot out in front of her. “How did you get here?”
“That’s Lulabelle,” AJ said, startling her when he materialized beside her. He nodded toward the vegetable clutched in her fist. “What were you planning on doing with that? Stabbing her with it?”
She loosened her grip on the carrot, which she’d been holding like a dagger, and dropped her hand to her side. “Chloe’s information says she greeted guests with cookies and coffee. I thought this would be more appropriate.”
He waved a hand toward the animal. “Then by all means, play hostess.”
She inched forward determined to prove she wasn’t intimidated by him or the animal. The horse stopped munching grass, raised its head, and eyed her as if sizing her up. Grace peered over her shoulder at AJ. “She’s gentle, right? She’s not going to charge, is she?”
“Lu has one speed. Damn, irritatingly slow,” AJ said, his voice deadpan. He closed the distance between them in two long strides. “She couldn’t charge with a credit card.”
His callused hand covered hers evaporating her laughter. A shiver rippled through her as he coaxed her closer. “Lu, this is Grace.” His hand still on hers, they held out the carrot. The horse grabbed it between her teeth and gobbled up the treat.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lu.” The horse nudged her with her huge pink nose. Grace squealed, and jumped back.
“Easy city girl. Don’t be so skittish. Lu’s letting you know she wants you to scratch her nose.”
Her pride nicked, she insisted, “I wasn’t afraid. She startled m
e. That’s all.”
His eyebrow rose in that infuriating call-it-crap way of his. “Lu and I aren’t buying what you’re selling, but we’ll cut you some slack since you’re the new kid in town.”
Grace tilted her head, and studied the animal beside her. “She believes me. I see it in her eyes.” She leaned closer. “We females have to stick together.”
The horse snorted and bobbed her head.
“Traitor,” AJ snapped, but his voice lacked bite. “Lu reminds me a lot of you in temperament.”
“Unflappable and determined?”
“Opinionated and headstrong.”
Grace resisted the urge to smile. “Lu and I will both take that as a compliment. A woman should know her own mind, and stick to what she believes.”
Grace reached out to touch Lu, but pulled back. “You sure it’s okay for me to touch her?”
He nodded, and reached out to scratch the horse’s forehead. “Put your hand over mine.”
When she did, another jolt of awareness shot through her. Damn. She’d hoped her earlier reaction had been an anomaly. Then his hand slid out from under hers, and the tingles disappeared. Ignoring the masculine pheromones pouring off the man beside her, she addressed Lu. “Thanks for going easy on me. You’re the first horse I’ve met.”
“Ever?”
“It’s not that odd. I grew up in New York City. You’re acting as if I said I don’t know how to read.”
He chuckled again.
“What’s Lu doing here? Tell me Cass hasn’t developed a plan to offer pony rides to get more families to stay at the inn. I think I’d seriously have to reconsider this job if she did that.”
“While that sounds like something Cassie would come up with, it’s not why Lu’s here.” AJ laughed. The warm, free sound rippled through Grace, making her smile, too. “I wish it was. Then she’d be your problem.”
